By Carrie Classon I’ve always known I was lucky when it came to family.  I saw classmates who had impossible siblings, and I knew my curly-headed younger sister was a catch. I knew people who really hated spending time with their parents, and I always had fun with mine—and I still do. I grew up with 36 cousins, 34 of whom were on my mother’s side. It was a lot easier to keep track of my father’s side of the family, but I always felt somehow rich, having so many cousins spread

By Kelsey Wuff, Otter Tail County Master Gardener Ruth Stout was famous for her “No-Work” gardening method, a topic on which she wrote a few books in addition to several other gardening books. Rather than follow traditional methods of gardening, the basic idea of Ruth’s method is to cover your garden area with eight solid inches of mulch. Pull the mulch back to plant, then tuck the mulch back around the plants once they have established. As the mulch breaks down she would sim

By Stanley Musielewicz of Little Falls It was a beautiful, late spring day in early June. A few clouds drifted across sunny skies, and the temperature was comfortable. School was out, and my family was visiting my grandmother’s farm, which was farmed by my bachelor Uncle Joe. My Cousin Danny was about three years older than myself, going into his senior year of high school. He was a city boy, but spent a few weeks every summer helping our uncle with the farming. Danny and I w

By Carrie Classon I have become the treat lady again. Depending on where I’m walking, I either carry dog treats or I don’t. I used to carry them all the time, but when we moved to the city, I stopped carrying dog treats because I feared that the downtown dogs (or their owners) might not welcome my treats. Maybe they were on a diet (the dogs, I mean). Maybe they had allergies. Maybe they would be suspicious of a strange woman doling out treats. So I stopped carrying treats. My

By Nancy Leasman Neytiri has gone home to St. Paul (see February’s Work Out column). She was a quiet house guest for a month, required trail camera monitoring for her people to find her (behind the furnace), and caused a bit of a scuffle to be caught. Since then, she has settled in and seems to appreciate her surrounding, including her people. So, our house is petless. No cats, no dogs, no fish, or birds. The closest thing to a pet is the robotic vacuum cleaner. I named it Da

By Carrie Classon Last summer, Judy approached me one day when I was walking by an old church. “I see you walking by here every day!” she said. “Oh, yes. I need to walk!” I told her. Judy is an associate pastor at this Episcopal church. She did not appear intent on getting me to church, but she was excited because they were having silent meditation in the chapel. She wondered if I might like to join. “It’s open to anyone?” I asked. “Every Tuesday night from 6 to 7. Stay as lo

By Carl Gadow of Eagan The passage of days and nights is loud and clear, but decades slip by quietly—until something smacks you in the face like a frozen northern pike. That’s when you realize you still fish like it’s 1979—and that what once felt proudly “old school,” now edges closer to simply “old fool.” My own tail-fin-to-the-cheek moment arrived just before Christmas. I was sitting on my pail, patiently jigging for sunfish, when I glanced around at the handful of anglers

By Jim Palmer It started with a simple text from my youngest son, Easton, a sophomore in high school. “Can you answer some questions for me to get extra credit in math?” My first thought was... why would my son be asking me to answer questions for him for extra credit? He has always done well in math... and has always been a rule follower. After questioning his motives (in a joking way) he let me know that the assignment was for him to ask an adult to answer some math questio

By Joel Johnson of Fargo In 1995, I started a new job at the Villa Maria Nursing Home in Fargo. I would go to work at 6 a.m. as part of the early morning floor care shift. My duty was to provide a healthy, sanitary environment in the building for the residents’ home. Elizabeth was one of the elderly residents of the home. One morning during my first week of employment, she was sitting in her wheelchair in the doorway of her room with a kind spirit about her. Elizabeth gave me